I've been thinking this one over for the last couple of days, and I've decided I might as well throw it open to the lot of you. I'm planning on going back to America, and I'm thinking about doing it this September.

Why September? Well, when I visited in June 09, it was bastard hot and I was paying peak summer holiday prices. Now I'm not tied to university/school/college timetables - and most of the rest of you aren't either - I can be a bit more flexible in when I travel.

I also need to make sure I actually have the money to do this, and September gives me enough time to save up, provided business stays as lively as it has been for the past couple of months.

So I'm telling you all about this now even though I don't know for certain I can do it, because I want to give people as much advance warning as possible and because I want to have a clear idea of where I'm going so I can budget for it properly. Like last time, this seems like a good opportunity to get groups of ZPers together, so this can also be the thread for organising that.

Chicago and the San Francisco area seem like sensible destinations because they're already home to more than one ZPer and I already know the cities a little bit. But I missed a lot of you guys last time because I wasn't even slightly near you, so if there's some other place where ZPers can gather, I could potentially alter my plans accordingly.

I plan to make a final decision about what to do at the end of April; at that point, I'll know what I can afford and I'll book tickets (or not) accordingly. So who's up for joining me on this ridiculous escapade?

I'll be starting school in September, so making a trip out to Chicago won't be possible for me. However, if you're interested, after you've seen what you want to see in Chicago, consider taking a train ride to Michigan.

ALSO Symuun I forgot that September is precisely the BEST time to visit San Francisco. God and nature willing, that's our summer, which is really just sunny, mild weather in the high 70s/low 80s, but everyone dresses like a slut anyway because they're SO GODDAMN EXCITED that the sun is out at all.

I don't know how practical this is for you or anyone else, but this balls cheap bus line called Megabus basically runs from Orlando to Toronto and out into Chicago now. If nothing else, I will try to be in Chicago.

I don't know how practical this is for you or anyone else, but this balls cheap bus line called Megabus basically runs from Orlando to Toronto and out into Chicago now. If nothing else, I will try to be in Chicago.

Persuade me. I didn't think you lived in a tourist-friendly area, but maybe I'm wrong. Are you Houston, or Dallas?

Dallas area.

What do you consider 'tourist-friendly' exactly? The museums and such other typical-touristy nonsense? Well Houston very well might have one up on us there. NASA plays no small role in that. But how about fun stuff? You know, like Six Flags, Medieval Times, any sports teams that don't suck horribly to the point that even most Texans outside of Houston hardly recognize they exist. Houston used to have a Six Flags too, actually, but it was sort of horrible so they closed it. But basically if you want to be a typical tourist doing typical tourist boring things, go to Houston. If you want to have fun, go to the DFW area.

... Of course if we were to take in a bit more of Texas and its tourist-friendliness levels, San Antonio would probably be strictly best. I love going to San Antonio. Their Six Flags isn't quite as good (though better than the one Houston had), but other than that.

Anyway, yeah, Symuun, is there particular stuff you want to do in SF this time around (besides go to High Tide)? We sort of did all the touristy stuff last time, but we could go look at Art (SFMOMA, the de Young, and the Palace of the Legion of Honor are all excellent museums), and there are some cool spots on the coast we could go walk around on (since the weather won't be miserable, hopefully). Also, we could do more stuff in Oakland. I'll just say I live about a ten-minute walk from Beer Revolution and leave that there.